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Protesters march as DU dinner honors former President George W. Bush

About 100 people picketed outside the Grand Hyatt hotel Monday night in Denver before a University of Denver fundraiser that honored former President George W. Bush.

The evening was the culmination of a furor that started in July, when the school said Bush was being given an award honoring his work as a humanitarian.

After the announcement, students and faculty members protested, and an online petition asking the school to reconsider received about 1,600 signatures.

Then DU officials said the award, which had been called "Improving the Human Condition," would be renamed to the "Global Service" award for his work fighting AIDS and malaria in Africa. The name change did take the protests into account.

Lily Montesano, right, and other University of Denver students protest the plan to give former U.S. President George W. Bush a "Global Service" award outside the Grand Hyatt hotel in downtown Denver, Colo., on Sept. 9, 2013. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

But that didn't placate Monday's protesters, many of whom carried signs and yelled through bullhorns as cars pulled into the reception area of the hotel. On the edge of the property, other protesters milled, cheering as a series of speakers decried Bush's record.

Among them was Sandra Doran, who called herself a "Volvo-driving registered Republican" from Denver.

Standing next to a friend, Doran said the two "don't agree on much. Usually we're at opposite ends of the political spectrum. But I'm ashamed of Bush, and the idea that he's getting a humanitarian award sickens me."

One of the organizers of Monday's protest, Roshan Bliss, a master's student at DU's Josef Korbel School of International Studies, said faculty members also formally protested the decision to honor Bush. But the administration wouldn't go beyond the name change.

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"We thought they would reconsider, perhaps invite him to be the keynote speaker, but not give him an award," Bliss said. "If they wanted to bring him in to be a draw for the fundraiser, the people probably would have been unhappy about it, but I don't know that we would have had this protest."

Not everyone on campus felt the same way.

As the picketers marched outside the hotel, Christian Allen was making his way up to the dinner. A senior from Boulder, Allen said Monday's was the third Korbel dinner he has attended. He said the controversy had no impact on his decision.

"I think that anyone famous who's being honored, like a former president, is going to cause a stir," he said.

Now in its 16th year, the Korbel Dinner is DU's major fundraising event. Proceeds are used to support scholarships and faculty research and programs. Previous honorees include former U.S. Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright, Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson and former U.S. Army chief of staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr.

The media were barred from attending the dinner. The evening consisted of a wide-ranging, informal conversation between Bush and Korbel dean Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to Macedonia, Korea and Poland under Bush, Hill said.

They talked about issues ranging from 9/11 to Bush's former ownership of the Texas Rangers.

Hill said he considered asking him about the crisis in Syria but refrained when Bush said he didn't like talking about politics.

"It was a warm occasion," Hill said. "He was very funny and engaged. He clearly felt he was among friends."

Hill said he wasn't even sure Bush was aware of the controversy surrounding his visit. "I was troubled by it," Hill said. "We're an international school. We should be able to invite a former president."

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